So why a Desiderata pen?

This site is not just about investigating fountain pen inks in the wider context, it’s also about how best to demonstrate the found outcomes. There are a plethora of fountain pens on the market in all shapes, sizes and colours with a huge variety of nib types allowing for all manner handwriting and lettering styles. My investigations into fountain pen inks thus far reveal that for as well as handwriting, they are equally suitable for graphics and illustration and it’s this latter area that fountains pens can have their limitations.

To date, I have been using the Noodlers flex pens – and very good they are too – BUT what Pierre Miller at Desiderata Pens has done, is to take a Zebra G flex nib and incorporate it into a fountain pen. Many illustrators are already familiar with the Zebra G in a dip pen scenario. The fine and robust flex quality of this nib allows the user to create ultra fine lines as well as lines up to 3mm thick and it’s this breadth of line that is key for me. For those of us who like to illustrate our journals, the benefits of the Desiderata pen are many – greater variety of line width, portability, ease of use, time saving, dual usage and as a dedicated tool that uses fountain pen inks (water and bleach interactive) as opposed to using a dip pen with inks that contain shellac – making the Desiderata Daedalus the new pen of choice to help me to visualise my experimentation.

The hand-cut ebonite feed is really impressive with a great ink delivery. The flow is superb and after fairly heavy use, I’ve only had a couple of instances of railroading. The Zebra G nibs can tolerate a lot of abuse and they are cheap to replace. This is by far the most fun I’ve had with a modern pen in a very long time.

For further information on Desiderata pens please click here. Please note, these are hand made and cost accordingly.
Noodlers pens are the next best thing and more kindly on the wallet.

Below is a pic of the great pen maker Pierre Miller of @thedesideratapencompany commissioning my new acquisition at Penfriend, Burlington Arcade. He just happened to be in London week before last. I was a very lucky as that was the only pen he had with him and his new batch of limited stock won’t be ready for a while yet.

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Nick Stewart

I create art using fountain pen inks and bleach. My techniques epitomise the whole ethos of ‘less is more’ and demonstrate how much one can achieve using very little. It is also a medium that is very much serendipity led and the beauty of the final outcomes are often dictated by this.